METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 447 



of flowers are drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and then 

 in the night fall down with the dews with which they are 

 entangled. 



This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who 

 gather it with great assiduity, but it is injurious to the 

 trees on which it happens to fall, by stopping the pores 

 of the leaves. The greatest quantity falls in stiU close 

 weather ; because winds disperse it, and copious dews 

 dilute it, and prevent its ill effects. It falls mostly in 

 hazy warm weather. 



MORNING CLOUDS 



After a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually 

 becomes cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the fore- 

 noon, and clear again toward the decline of the day. 

 The reason seems to be, that the dew, drawn up by 

 evaporation, occasions the clouds ; which, towards even- 

 ing, being no longer rendered buoyant by the warmth of 

 the sun, melt away, and fall down again in dews. If 

 clouds are watched in a still warm evening, they will be 

 seen to melt away, and disappear. 



DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT 



No one that has not attended to such matters, and 

 taken down remarks, can be aware how much ten days 

 dripping weather will influence the growth of grass or 

 corn after a severe dry season. This present summer, 

 1776, yielded a remarkable instance ; for till the 30th of 

 May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the barley 

 not half out of the ground ; but now, June 10, there is an 

 agreeable prospect of plenty. 



AURORA BOREALIS 



November i, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular 

 appearance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt. 



